Yes, Buhari has won a war but has created another: Let's say it, this Change is clueless!

Our people wanted a new political life, so they embraced the political chant of ‘change’ and punitively rejected the then ruling false-hearted political party of transformation at the presidential polls in 2015 .But almost two years down the line, in the life of the administration of change, Nigerians can see the difference clearly and how dwindling the economic lives of majority of the masses of our people have become. 

Today, it is crystal clear that the political gospel of change by the current administration is not only illusory but emotionally manipulative of the many political aberrations that President Jonathan’s committed. Simply put, the triumph of change mantra was as a result of the many political eccentricities of Jonathan and his umbrella party.

But really what has changed? Today, the champions of change mantra will not allow anyone who cares to listen to know how their hero has conquered corruption and how he has within a short time frame  put insecurity under control particularly in  the North East  and how he has used his powers to deal with the many rots of the past administrations.  Yes, I cannot agree less with these boring rhetoric above and I sincerely commend this administration for her zero-tolerance to corruption. In addition, our gallant gentlemen officers of the Nigerian army should be appreciated for their many sacrifices for bringing terrorism to a halt even though the recent ballistic error/massacre on IDP camp was a costly unintentional error that needs not to be swept under the carpet by the current administration.  Agreed though, that these are commendable feats by APC government but for heaven’s sake, can we leave the boring rhetoric for once and  talk about the most important issues that are dear to all Nigerians?   What about our suffering economy that has strangulated many families, industries, companies, manufacturing sector, entrepreneurial ventures and made foreign investors to stay put because of weak investors' confidence in our economy? Can government tell us the measure(s) put in place to arrest the skyrocketing prices of essential commodities, including food items?

Can we say the truth and let Mr. President know that though he is winning the war on terrorism by decimating the Boko Haram sect but losing on the economy.  Can we remind him that he convincingly promised during the electioneering campaigns that he would put the economy back on track within a short period if he won the election? Will many of my friends who were (many of them are regretting now though) sentimentally attached to 'change' mantra stand up and say for sure that this is not the change they voted? Will they be truthful to tell the world that things are worse off now and the administration appears clueless?  To say the truth, the economy of the country is on the sideways under this administration.  For instance, on the eve of President Obama's  inauguration some years back, several American families had already lost their houses and jobs to a global recession that held America’s economy by the throat but Obama rolled his sleeves, got down to work real hard, without rhetoric of blames on the immediate past administration. He showed Americans his recovery plan from recession that would soon place America back shortly after his ascendancy and chatted the way forward by communicating a clear policy agenda to his country.   And indeed, Obama's recovery plan was the first success of his presidency. What can we say about baba Buhari's economic agenda folks? Where is the blue print of his recovery plan for the nation?

The reality of our present state of the economy is ugly. The current state of aspirational frustrations of majority of Nigerians is dysphoric. The standard of living is at all-time appalling. The inflation rate(currently seems out of control) has accelerated to the highest in more than a decade and worst still, there is no clear economic blue print that will bring us out of this atrocious economic condition. Today, hardly can a common man afford to buy the cheapest staple food to feed his family. Those who engage in businesses are not better off and the rate at which young Nigerians are losing jobs across the country is alarming. And it seems to me that in all these economic brouhaha, this government and his co - proximate actors have become more unsympathetic, unleashing further hardships daily on the masses of our people by not declaring a state of emergency on the economy and come out clearly about her timeline of actions.  In the words of one of my facebook friends, a fellow who with the whole of his heart and family campaigned and voted this government but who is now extremely disappointed, he opined "there is a new boko haram in Nigeria. They are the armed robbers, who terrorize innocent Nigerians day and night created by the unfriendly economic policies of this administration. I never have this feeling of insecurity all my life. I'm not a friend of hardship o. Next time you have a change agenda, do it alone.... In fact, I need to know why Buhari toppled Shagari government and why Babangida should not remove him too" This statement honestly summarizes the disappointment of many Nigerian youths who voted for Mr. Buhari and his party. 

To say that the economy is worse now than it was two years ago, is to say the obvious. And this government and his promoters have continued to dwell on an over flogged excuses and inadequacies of the immediate past administration as the cause of our present predicament. Let's be frank and say it, past administration was bad but the unfriendly economic reality on ground makes the present administration worse! For instance, a litre of kerosene now goes for #500 and to refill your 12kg cylinder cooking gas, you may have to cough out nothing less than #5000, all in the name of superfluous change! What a nonsense change! Is it the phenomenal rise in electricity tariff, without supply that we want to talk about or the general level of economic insecurity or the way small and medium enterprises are folding up? Do we talk about many private companies that are struggling to just exist without profit or the ones that owe their employees backlog of salaries? These are just few examples of the new war situations that we have and need a real change!

What Next? Prepare to Change the “change”

In the parting words of the former United States of America's President Barack Obama after his 8 years tenure some days ago, he charged "If something needs fixing, then lace up your shoes and do some organizing. If you’re disappointed by your elected officials, grab a clipboard, get some signatures, and run for office yourself. Show up. Dive in. Stay at it. Sometimes you’ll win. Sometimes you’ll lose.” Though grabbing a clipboard or signing some recall signatures may not work in our polity but definitely, diving in, showing up and running for elective positions may make some real sense! Therefore, the next agenda is for  Nigerians to fix this mess and bring the real change and to actualize this, the  Nigerian youths whose future have been mortgaged by both the past and present political actors need to stand up now!

Let no one deceive you, the permutations for 2019 politics have begun, Nigerian masses should wake up, the political calculations are being computed strategically and for this reason the Nigerian youths need to stand up, strategize and plan on how they can become the real change agents. The Nigerian youths home and abroad must use their demographics power, knowledge and digital resources to their advantage and start right now. It is time to rise above illogical political sentiments (recent political happenings have shown the hypocrisy of change) and unleash a punitive vote to usher in the real change.